But I Don't Wanna Be Tutored!

I tutored a reluctant student last week. She came into the writing center only because her teacher told her to do so. Additionally, she was not a big fan of her teacher and made that quite clear during the session. I began by asking her about the assignment. She provided very minimal details on this matter. I could tell that this was not only because she was a reluctant student, but also because she seemed to a pretty deep-seeded dislike of her professor.

After getting some basic information about her assignment, I asked her what her concerns were with the paper. She responded with "I don't really have any. I just had to come here for credit." I replied by saying "OK, let's pretend that you didn't have to come here. What would be your concerns?" This extremely simple response actually worked: she began to explain how she was worried about if her paper was fulfilling the assignment and that she did not fully understand the assignment.

We read through the assignment sheet and gained a fuller grasp on what the assignment required. She slowly became much less reluctant as the session went on. And by the end of the session, she was doing most of the talking.